One senior university official, who has since left Liberty, told Ambrosino about a car ride he took with Falwell about a decade ago.

“All he wanted to talk about was how he would nail his wife, how she couldn’t handle [his penis size], and stuff of that sort,” this former official said.

Longtime Liberty officials also said that Falwell has shown or texted male confidants, including at least one employee, photos of his wife Becki in provocative or sexual poses.

On at least one occasion, Falwell shared a photo of his wife wearing what appeared to be a French maid costume, according to a longtime university employee with knowledge of the situation.

Falwell intended to send the photo to Becki’s personal trainer, Ben Crosswhite, as thanks for helping her reach her fitness goals, the employee said.

However, he accidentally sent the image to several other people — which Falwell later denied.

“I never had any picture of Becki Falwell dressed in a French maid uniform,” he told Ambrosino, “and never sent such a non-existent photo to Ben Crosswhite.”

Insiders also expressed discomfort with the couple’s relationship to Crosswhite, who was offered a sweetheart deal to buy fitness space from the university.

The evangelical university carved out space six years ago in the old Racket Club to rent to Crosswhite to privately train the Falwells, and Liberty then began paying for expensive upgrades to the facility.

Falwell pushed for Liberty to sell the space to Crosswhite in 2015, and the university’s vice president and chief operating officer Randy Smith proposed terms that would sell the club to Crosswhite for $1.2 million.

Liberty employees would still be allowed to use the club, and the school paid in advance for seven years of use, at $82,000 per year.

That allowed Crosswhite to buy the club for about $640,000, which Liberty sources found to be highly favorable to the couple’s trainer.

“Hell of a deal,” a former high-ranking Liberty official said. “We gave Ben everything he asked for.”

Falwell insisted the athletic facility had been a drain on Liberty resources since it had been donated, and he said the sale to Crosswhite cut those costs while still providing access by the university.

Smith, the chief operating officer, also agreed the arrangement was a “win-win situation” for both Crosswhite and Liberty, but legal experts said the deal — like others probed in the Politico report — suggests ethical issues at Liberty.

“When I hear the laundry list of interested transactions and the questionable use of Liberty University’s assets,” said Philip Hackney, an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh Law School who specializes in taxation and nonprofit management, “I hear a nonprofit that is not well-governed in a sense that I would hope and expect from a sizable nonprofit. It has the sense of being managed for a charismatic leader and his family and friends rather than for the mission of Liberty.”

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Members of several large, private Facebook groups are calling for the assassination of Michigan’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer over her policies to slow the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Michigan ranks number four in total coronavirus deaths and number eight in total cases.

There is another armed anti-Whitmer protest slated forThursday, again at the State Capitol. One of last month’s protests drew hundreds of demonstrators, many of them armed.

“Assassinating Whitmer is a common theme among members of the groups. Dozens of people have called for her to be hanged,” reports the Detroit Metro Times. “Others suggested she be shot, beaten, or beheaded.”

“We need a good old fashioned lynch mob to storm the Capitol, drag her tyrannical ass out onto the street and string her up as our forefathers would have,” one post reads, according to the Metro Times. The post was made in a group with 9000 members, called “People of Michigan vs. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.”

“Drag that tyrant governor out to the front lawn. Fit her for a noose,” another post says.

President Donald Trump on Friday insisted the armed protestors who took over Michigan’s statehouse are “very good people” and called on Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer to negotiate with them.

On Thursday for hours a reported 400-700 mostly white men, many heavily armed, appearing as militia members, endangered statehouse workers, including state police officers and Sergeants at Arms as they ignored social distancing guidelines, wore no masks, and jammed themselves shoulder-to-shoulder inside the capitol building to protest Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s policies designed to reduce the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

Trump announced guidelines for states to reopen a couple of weeks ago. Either Michigan meets those guidelines, or they don’t. And if they don’t, he should be telling his people to stand down because the virus won’t “make a deal” https://t.co/g44ip6M5SZ

A bunch of white people came to the capitol with carrying assault rifles and not wearing any protective gear. The GOP-controlled legislature took their side. You instigated them. The governor of Michigan is 100% doing the right thing — something you don’t know much about. https://t.co/51LogFscZG

Sean Spicer and Reince Priebus Returning to White House in New Roles

President Donald Trump is getting the old gang back together, and all is apparently forgiven. The “superstitious” president is apparently hoping his re-election chances will be stronger if he surrounds himself with those who helped him win in the first place, as The New York Times reports.

Sadly, his former attorney, Michael Cohen, and former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, are unavailable as they are serving time in prison, but Trump has unlocked the door for former press secretary Sean Spicer and former chief of staff Reince Priebus to return to the White House, albeit in vastly different capacities.

Trump will appoint Spicer and Priebus “to be members on the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships,” Axios and Salon report. The pair are expected to interview and recommend candidates for the program. It is unknown if they will have any other duties.

The program, which was started in 1964 under President Johnson, allows over a dozen individuals to work in the White House as paid fellows with the understanding they will continue their public policy work after their year of service.